UK workers set to experience fall in real wages, analysis suggests

10 May 2017

UK workers are set to experience a fall in real wages in 2017 and 2018, according to an analysis published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

The analysis, which is based on forecasts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), found that the UK will be one of just five OECD countries to experience a fall in real wages.

UK real wages are on course to fall by -0.5% by the end of 2018. The business group found that, in other OECD countries, real wage growth is set to increase by an average of +2.6%.

Real wages for UK workers will be -6.8% lower in 2018 than they were in 2007 before the financial crash, the OECD has predicted.

The TUC is urging the next government to act in order to boost UK real wage growth.

Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the TUC, commented: ‘British workers have endured the longest pay squeeze since Victorian times.

‘Britain badly needs a pay rise – and all the political parties must explain in their manifestos how they will boost living standards across the UK.’